Immediately Set Standards to Regulate Dispensing and Medicine Management in clinics

Earlier this month, a media reported an incident where a clinic assistant labelled the medicines wrongly resulting in adverse consequences for the child concerned. According to the article the child was taken to a clinic in Pasir Mas, Kelantan for rashes. He was prescribed an antibiotic and a lotion for external application.

The clinic assistant labelled the medicines wrongly resulting in the lotion being labelled as the antibiotic. The lotion prescribed was Gamascab which is indicated for the treatment of head lice. The child fell very ill on consuming the lotion and had to be admitted to Hospital Raja Perempuan Zainab in Kota Bahru.   Fortunately the child recovered from the ordeal.

This incident brings up the very important issue of separation of prescribing and dispensing of medicines, a policy that has been debated for decades without much headway.  In Malaysia it is common practice that dispensing of medicines in private clinics is handled by staff not trained for the job. There is no check for the safety and appropriateness of the prescription and any potential-medication related problems.  

Separation of dispensing and prescribing is the way forward to ensure that consumers are dispensed medicines by trained personnel. Prescribing and dispensing are two important aspects of access to medicines with dispensing being an area of competence of pharmacy staff rather than the medical profession. It is a basic right for consumers to be dispensed and advised on medicines by trained professionals.

Given that it is still a long way before the separation of prescribing and dispensing sees the light of day in Malaysia, the Consumers Association of Penang calls on the Ministry of Health to take some immediate measures to protect the health of consumers and prevent such incidents from occurring. The Ministry of Health needs to set standards to regulate dispensing and medicine management in clinics.  Dispensing of medicines is too important a task to be left in untrained hands. As the above incident illustrates, a careless mistake can lead to dire consequences.

Letter to Editor, 26th April 2016